Why do kids have to grow up?

[3timesoccermom]

This is such a good thread. My friend and I are going back and forth boo hooing to each other and being nervous wrecks about our daughters being high school seniors this year. They are both 18 and going off to college this fall. This is my middle daughter, my oldest stayed local for college and my youngest will be 16 in a few days.

I am sorry to tell you that the pain of them leaving does not diminish as they get older - it only gets more real. My daughter thinks I am a major dork because every couple of days I tear about something but she humors me. The other day I told her not to forget to kiss me goodbye every time she leaves the house because I only have a little time left til she won't be able to do that. Then I busted out crying again!

Whenever I see someone with a new baby I wish there was some way I could impress upon them how incredibly fast it will go. sigh . . .

[melodyjg]

This is such a good thread. My friend and I are going back and forth boo hooing to each other and being nervous wrecks about our daughters being high school seniors this year. They are both 18 and going off to college this fall. This is my middle daughter, my oldest stayed local for college and my youngest will be 16 in a few days.

I am sorry to tell you that the pain of them leaving does not diminish as they get older - it only gets more real. My daughter thinks I am a major dork because every couple of days I tear about something but she humors me. The other day I told her not to forget to kiss me goodbye every time she leaves the house because I only have a little time left til she won't be able to do that. Then I busted out crying again!

Whenever I see someone with a new baby I wish there was some way I could impress upon them how incredibly fast it will go. sigh . . .

Oh I can just imagine what I will be feeling in 2 years and I don't want to go there! He wants to go to Cal Tech.... But it is so far away :sad:

[kval07]

Okay, so I kind of know how you feel but on a different level, since I don't have kids.

I am the oldest of seven, and I can remember, even from a very early age and continuing on still today, wondering about what my sisters and brother would look, act and be like as they got older. Our ages: 26 - me, 23, 22 my only brother, 21, 19, 17, 14.

Whenever I answer my brother's calls, I still say, Hey, what's up baby brother? I still remember watching him the very first day he learned to crawl up on to the couch. I remember when he was little he used to say to my dad, "Just like you always used to say: wokka wokka wokka." Only my dad has NEVER said that a day in his whole life. And now he is in the National Guard!

I remember my sister who is 21 (and my best friend of all my sisters) dancing around and chomping her gum in the video my mom made of us kids to send to my dad when he was working out of state during the summers. She would just stand there with her hands on her hips, swaying back and forth, chomping her gum like a little cow. Now she lives out of state and is holding her own in Nashville.

I could go on and on, lol. It really is a funny thing to see how the lives of my sisters/brother progress. It may not be as bittersweet as it is for you mothers though.

[momof2inohio]

I have been feeling the same way. My son is 11 and I have noticed a huge change in him since last year. Now that he is in 5th grade he is more concerned with his friends and social life than anything else. The "popular" group has started already. He has a busier social life than me I was just telling DH, "Don't you miss our little boy???". Instead of going out to dinner with us on friday nights he is now going ice skating with friends or spending the night at a friends house.

My daughter just turned 8. She still likes to hang out with us I am hoping we still have a few more years of babying her a bit.